This invention relates to a method for spray combining two liquids uniformly by utilizing the action of corona discharge or an electric field and to an apparatus for working the method.
The development of a technique capable of electrostatically combining two liquids in a sprayed form has been desired in various fields. The technique is found necessary where two liquids which cannot easily be emulsified or solubilized without use of a surfactant are to be combined to form a mixture, where water is to be added in a uniformly dispersed state to gasoline or kerosene as a fuel for the purpose of lowering the occurrence of NO.sub.x, or when an alcohol is to be added to oil to save oil, for example.
Heretofore, the combination of two liquids has been accomplished by use of a surfactant proper to the nature of the liquids involved or by means of a mechanical force. Some, if not all, liquids being combined may abhor contact with a surfactant. Even when two liquids are combined by means of a mechanical force, no effective combination is obtained unless the machine in use is operated under a complicated combination of precisely selected conditions. In view of these difficulties, the inventors previously proposed a method for the combination of two substances by the steps of finely dividing the two substances separately by corona discharge under mutually reverse polarities and bringing the two masses of finely divided particles of opposite polarity into contact with each other U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,767, granted May 17, 1983, to Jido.